When Doug Price purchased Citizens State Bank in 2016, he knew he had a fixer-upper on his hands with the Ouray branch.

Put into service in 1898, the building at the northwest corner of Main Street and Sixth Avenue was leaning. The floor sagged. The systems that lit, heated and cooled the building were decrepit and unreliable.

A $400,000 remodel became a $4 million historic preservation project.

“I think the building would have fallen down without it,” Price said.

That effort, which not only cre...